Meaning of Taxable Territory for Service Tax

As per Charging Section

Service must be provided in taxable territory to be taxable.

Taxable territory means

the territory to which the provisions of this Chapter apply i.e. the whole of territory of India other than the State of Jammu and Kashmir [Section 65(51)].

Meaning of India

‘India’ means,—

• the territory of the Union as referred to in clauses (2) and (3) of article 1 of the Constitution;

• its territorial waters, continental shelf, exclusive economic zone or any other maritime zone as defined in the Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and other Maritime Zones Act, 1976;

• the seabed and the subsoil underlying the territorial waters;

• the air space above its territory and territorial waters; and

• the installations, structures and vessels located in the continental shelf of India and the exclusive economic zone of India, for the purposes of prospecting or extraction or production of mineral oil and natural gas and supply thereof [Section 65B(27)].

Indian territorial waters extend upto 12 nautical miles from the Indian land mass(i.e.,Base line)

QUESTION

Q.

Nitin Ltd. provided services to Jagat Oil Corporation from vessels located in the continental shelf of India for the purposes of prospecting natural gas.

State briefly whether service tax will be levied in this case.